


Together to Saturn

by avarenity



Category: Space Vehicles
Genre: Gen, humanized spacecraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 07:04:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1116932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avarenity/pseuds/avarenity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassini and Huygens achieve their dream - together,</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together to Saturn

"That's Saturn." Huygens said, looking up at the night sky.

"Where?" Cassini asked. She scanned the sky but still could not pick out the planet.

"There!" Huygens said, pointing to a particularly bright star.

"Oh." Cassini replied. "I wonder what's it like."

"I'm sure we'll find out, someday." Huygens said. Cassini smiled at him.

***

10 years later.

"You have to tell her." A voice said. Huygens didn't reply. He clenched his fists so hard he was starting to think he might be drawing blood. How could he tell Cassini? They had been picked for a mission - a one-way mission to Saturn. His part in the mission was simple - descend to Saturn's largest moon, Titan and take measurements and photos of the admosphere and surface. The thought scared him. The entire mission scared him.

***

"What do we do now?" Cassini asked.

"We don't have a choice." Huygens replied.

"I'm scared." Cassini sighed. Huygens didn't reply. He just hugged her.

***

"You can't do this to us." Cassini said. She stood before a panel of mission planners.

"Please." She begged. "Help us."

"What do you want us to do?" One of the planners asked.

"Anything. Something. Anything that will let Huygens and I be together. After the Titan part of the mission is over." Cassini pleaded.

"We'll see what we can do." Another mission planner said. "We will inform you when we have come to a decision."

"Thank you." Cassini said. She left the room, still feeling very uneasy.

***

Cassini sat perched high up on top of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA. Her thoughts were in a mess. She had just come from a meeting with the mission planners for the Cassini-Huygens mission - their mission. They had less than a year to launch.

Earlier that week, she had gone to the Jet Propulsion Lab's clean room to see her space probe being built. It was an impressive sight, Cassini had thought. The Cassini space prove stood over three times her height and was bristling with science instruments. Already the braket where the Huygens probe would be fittted in was installed.

Huygens, on the other hand, was away in Europe working with mission planners from ESA, the European Space Agency. Their part in the mission was the Huygens probe. He had called back a few times, updating Cassini on what was going on. Not that she didn't know what was going on. The mission planners on both sides had kept each other updated on every single aspect of the mission. It was good to hear the stories and updates from Huygens though.

***

October 14th 1997

Cassini shivered as she walked across the field towards the launch pad. It was just hours to the launch. She looked up at the massive Titan rocket that would send them out into space. It was scary. It looked scary.

She ran the mission details though her mind. A seven year cruise from Earth to Saturn. Four gravity assists, from Venus twice, Earth and then Jupiter. Estimated arrival at Saturn was July 2004. Huygens was heading to Titan on Christmas Day of the same year.

***

Launch was scary. It was going from zero to goodness-knows-how-many miles an hour in a few seconds. Once they got going, it was like a thrill ride. Cassini and Huygens had connected to each other via the unbilical cord used to connect their repspective space probes. And screamed. They screamed mentally over their connection. Screaming like they were on the world's most insane roller caoaster.

Then laughing. It was Cassini.

"We made it." Cassini said, between laughter. "We're out of Earth's gravity."

"Next stop: Saturn." Huygens said. "Not counting the gravity assists."

***

December 25th 2004

"I'll see you in a year." Cassini smiled, despite her tears. Huygens reached up and wiped away her tears.

"Don't cry." Huygens said. "I'm going on an adventure."

With that, the Huygens probe was ejected from the Cassini orbitor and descended towards Titan.

***  
It was ritual. Every Christmas, Cassini would go to Titan and spend a few days with Huygens. Then the orbitor would return and Cassini would have to go back to her space probe.

Year after year, the same thing. It was the one thing Cassini lived for. She saw amazing things, she discovered new things about Saturn. Each and every thing she saw and experienced, she remembered.

And each Christmas, she would tell Huygens about it.

***

Christmas day 2016

"This will be our last Christmas here." Cassini said.

"Why?" Huygens asked, surprised. "Are you leaving the Saturnian system? Is your mission coming to an end?"

"My mission is ending next year." Cassini replied. "The mission planners are sending me and my space probe into the Titan atmosphere. The space probe will most probably burn up."

"Oh." Huygens replied.

"I expect you to catch me when I fall from the sky." Cassini joked.

"And what if I don't?" Huygens joked back.

"I'll be very angry with you then." Cassini replied, laughing.

***

Cassini could feel the space probe heating up as they slammed into the Titan admosphere. She closed her eyes, knowing that the combination of the heat and the friction would break up the probe.

When she next opened her eyes, she found Huygens looking at her. She grinned, sat up and hugged him.

***

With their mission finally over, they were free from the space probes. Free to wander where they pleased. Some days they flew to Enceladus and played amoungst the ice fountains. On other days, they would choose a nice chunk of Saturn's rings to sit on and watch the universe go back. On other days, they would stay on Titan and talk. Talk about life. Talk about each other. Talk about anything and everything.

One day, they floated in the middle of space, just looking into the distance. Saturn was some distance away, backlit by the Sun.

"Look. There's Earth." Huygens said, pointing.

Cassini squinted, and then she saw it. A pale blue dot, nestled between Saturn's ring.

They looked at each other, recalling a conversation over thirty years ago and a billion miles away. They smiled, knowing that they had finally achieved their dream - together.


End file.
